(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a commodity information provision method, and more particularly, to a commodity information provision method for providing incoming customers with commodity information.
(2) Description of the Related Art
When shopping at a supermarket, one often uses a shopping cart. An ordinary shopping cart is used simply to carry commodities, but by equipping a shopping cart with a mobile information/position detection device, it is possible to provide customers with a variety of information.
For example, the device may be used to display a total amount of commodities as the customer makes the commodities read by a barcode reader attached to the shopping cart. Also, the device may be used to display an advertisement of a loss leader in accordance with the position of the shopping cart. In this case, advertisement information may be registered in association with a specific time so as to provide information about a special offer at the specified time (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-304671, for example).
Meanwhile, in supermarkets, the locations for displaying commodities are occasionally changed. On such occasions, a customer who once purchased a certain commodity will look for the commodity in front of a display rack where the commodity had been displayed before, spending much time in finding the commodity. If the customer cannot find the commodity and gives up buying same (e.g., if the customer decides to buy the commodity at a different store), then the supermarket loses the opportunity for sale.
With the conventional technique, however, it is not possible to notify the customer of the location of a commodity when he/she is at a loss, not knowing the location where the commodity is displayed. It is generally difficult for clerks to watch all customers in the supermarket to judge whether the customers have trouble in doing something. Accordingly, there has been a demand for a system capable of automatically judging whether individual customers have difficulty and presenting necessary information to the customers.